Improvement in postal cards



M. LEE. Postal Gard- Ne. 200,067. Patented Feb. 5, i878.

POSTALAND REPLY CARDS.

MESSAGE CARD.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MARK LEE, OF HIGHLANDVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN POSTAL CARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 200,067, dated February 5, 1878; application filed October 29, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MARK LEE, of Highlandville, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Postal Cards; and do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a perspective View of a postal message and reply card combined and constructed in accordance with my invention, and Figs. 2 and 3 are opposite side views thereof.

My invention relates to a double or duplex postal card, by which a person sending a mes- I sage on one portion can have sent him a reply on the other without putting the recipient of the first to the expense of postage.

My invention consists in a double folded postal card, consisting of a message-card and a reply card folded upon each other, and printed and stamped so that the proper address side is exposed and the other covered, the free ends of the cards being provided with interlocking devices, all substantially as hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the drawings, A denotes the postal message-card, and B the postal reply-card, each having printed upon it suitable directions, and also having printed or fixed to it a postagestamp, a. These cards are united or hinged at one end of each, so that one may be folded down upon the other, and at their opposite ends one of such cards is provided with a dovetailed notch or recess, 1), and the other with a corresponding dovetailed projection, c, the latter being to enter and interlock with the recess.

By means of the projection and notch the two cards may be held together at their free ends, in order for the reply-card to cover and protect the message side of the messagecard, and in turn have its superscription or address covered and protected by such message-card.

Before mailing a duplex postal card of the kind described, the sender is to write the message on the inner face of the message-card,

and the address of the sender or receiver on the outer side of the message-card, and he (the said sender) is to write his own address on the inner face of the reply-card, as by so doing he renders the reply-card useless for transmission from the sender or receiver to any person but the sender.

By having the postage-stamps on the outer face of one card and the inner face of the other, as represented, the reply-card, after having a reply written on it, can be folded back upon the message-card, so as to cover its address and postal stamp, and cause the reply to be covered by the message-card, after which the two cards maybe interlocked at their free ends.

The party who may have sent the message can thus receive it back with the reply; or, by separating the reply-card from the messagecard, the former alone may be mailed.

I do not claim, as a new manufacture, a single unfolded or unfoldable postal card made and provided with duplicate stamps, arranged on it as represented in the United States Patent N 0. 193,012, for my card is a folded one, or is composed of a message-card and areplycard connected and folded one upon the other, and the stamp of one card is arranged so as to come immediately over or under that of the other when the cards are folded; also so that the message side of either card shall cover the address side of the other, whichever of the two ways the cards may be folded together.

I claim- As a new manufacture, a double folded postal card, consisting of a message-card and reply-card folded upon each other, and printed and stamped as described, so that the proper address side will be exposed and the other covered, the free ends of the cards being provided with the dovetail interlocking devices I) c, all in the manner and for the purposes specified.

MARK LEE.

Witnesses:

. R. H. EDDY,

JOHN R. SNOW. 

